We are extremely pleased to announce that Welsh and Welsh-American authors at this year's Left Coast Eisteddfod have been invited to appear and speak at the Portland, Oregon Wordstock festival.

Welsh authors Niall Griffiths, Chris Keil and Peter Griffiths and Welsh-speaking American author Harrison Solow have been invited to present a panel discussion at Wordstock tentatively titled, "Welsh Identity in Literature Dylan Thomas to Dr. Who: " Wordstock is the Pacific Northwest's largest literary festival and features local authors and publishers, as well as authors from around the world. It is the Northwest's equivalent to the Hay-on-Wye festival in Wales and will be held this year at the Oregon Convention Center ( see picture below ) and other sites around the city. The festival attracts around 15,000 visitors annually.

This will be the second year at the Left Coast Eisteddfod for Niall Griffiths and Chris Keil. Niall Griffiths is the author of seven novels and a number of works of non-fiction, He is currently working on a new title in the Seren 'New Stories From the Mabinogion' series. Chris Keil is the author of The French Thing and Liminal and is a lecturer at Trinity, St. David's. Chris is currently working on his third novel due to be published later this year. Peter Griffiths' is the author of Tongue Tied , now in its fourth printing with Y Lolfa and very popular with Welsh-American audiences. Harrison Solow is a multiple award winning writer, university professor, former Writer in Residence at the University of Wales. She was awarded the prestigious Pushcart Prize for Literature in 2008 for her non-fiction work, Bendithion, about Wales, Welshness and Timothy Evans. Her latest book, Felicity and Barbara Pym, published by Cinnamon Press, launches this month in Cardiff and London.

Left Coast Eisteddfod events are scheduled from Monday, October 4, 2010 through Saturday, October 9, 2010. Wordstock runs from Thursday, October 7, through Saturday, October 10. Watch the Left Coast Eisteddfod's site for more information.